We see it everywhere don't we- litter on the streets, toxic fumes, dirty water and bad air quality where people of color in America reside. Poverty and pollution are almost synonymous.
Environmental racism is such an interesting concept. It sounds novel and complicated and yet so familiar. When did being an environmentalist become a part of popular culture? Indigenous communities have had close relationships with the earth for centuries and yet were ridiculed for their lack of exploitation of the environment. What was colonization? Western powers imposing industrialization- an extractive economy- on the rest of the world in order to benefit their own populations. Now that the privileged can afford to be environmentalists, the history of racism in the exploitation of the earth is erased.
Below is one of my favorite poems that encapsulates the tension between industrialization and nature. Pan is the Greek god of the wild. The poet highlights that there is no space for Pan in western civilization- so he immigrated to a 'third world country', to a freedom that does not exist in the west. But then in the second part of her poem, Bhatt confronts her own culture’s hypocrisy. The next generations have forgotten Pan’s teachings. They want to be just like better than the west. Except that our air quality is so bad it’s hard to breathe sometimes and I wouldn't dream of drinking tap water back home. There is no question about climate change being real, we can see it, feel it and taste it and yet we ignore it. The very definition of ‘development’ is extraction. ‘Developing’ countries are called that because they haven’t learnt how to make money off natural resources. As large corporations take over –extract- the east as well, what will be left?
The drawing above is made by an artist from back home in Pakistan (@sleepysoymilk). The drawing is of a carefree goddess-like brown woman at one with nature. I think it does a pretty good job of evoking some of the nature back home ie. the fruits, the flower, the parrot, the way she's sitting, the wind, the sky, even the plants in the background.
Exploiting the earth was racist in the first place. Environmental racism is not a new concept. But I guess it’s good to be able to put a name to this form of oppression. It makes identifying the issue and talking about it a lot easier.
Great Pan is not dead;
he simply emigrated
to India.
Here, the gods roam freely,
disguised as snakes or monkeys;
every tree is sacred
and it is a sin
to be rude to a book.
It is a sin to shove a book aside
with your foot,
a sin to slam books down
hard on a table,
a sin to toss one carelessly
across a room.
You must learn how to turn the pages gently
without disturbing Sarasvati,
without offending the tree
from whose wood the paper was made.
Which language
has not been the oppressor’s tongue?
Which language
truly meant to murder someone?
And how does it happen
that after the torture,
after the soul has been cropped
with the long scythe swooping out
of the conqueror’s face –
the unborn grandchildren
grow to love that strange language.
-Sujata Bhatt
image credit: @sleepysoymilk